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Baked Beans

A hearty bean dish baked with pork, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Beans

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and parboil

  1. Pick over and wash the beans, then soak them overnight in enough cold water to keep them covered.

  2. In the morning, put the beans in a kettle with fresh cold water and boil until you can mash them with a spoon.

  3. Strain the beans through a colander and pour them into a bean pot.

Assemble and bake

  1. Wash and scrape the rind of the pork, cutting it into creases about ¼ inch apart, and place it in the center of the beans.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and pour it into the beans, along with the molasses and additional salt if needed.

  3. Cover the beans with boiling water and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 4 to 5 hours.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beans + molassestop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together491 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pork + molassestop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together825 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Dry white beans
Form the bulk of the dish and, once cooked slowly, become tender and creamy.
Fat salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that slowly melts into the beans during baking.
Molasses
Contributes sweetness and deep color, and helps the beans brown during baking.
Baking soda
Raises the pot's alkalinity, which helps the beans soften during cooking.

The step that matters

Boil the beans until they mash easily. Beans must be fully softened before baking, because acidic and sugary ingredients added later slow further softening. Undercooked beans stay firm and grainy even after the long bake.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, molasses):

  1. Beansthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits less well
  4. Nutsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, molasses. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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